Forge of Champions offers opportunities for players and organisations to showcase their ability. This will help teams decide what measures they need to take for the UKLC summer split.
Barrage is a side that is looking to make a statement in Forge of Champions. After a sub-par performance in the spring split, this tournament offers the players a chance to prove themselves. With this in mind, Barrage’s top laner Artorias is hopeful that his side can progress very far in the competition.
“I think we should have no trouble with ‘looking for an org’ and we should be looking to take a clean 2-0 vs them today. Since we did not play MnM Gaming at all during the tower format I can’t feel too secure predicting our win. As long as we are able to keep the games stable we should be able to win without much trouble.”
“For me personally, I would like to go in and show some solid play from myself. A frequent and fair criticism of my play is that I am inconsistent and I would like to use the series format to show that I can be adaptable in champions whilst also maintaining a stable level of play.”
Barrage have made slight changes to their starting roster adding Fittle to their Forge of Champions line up. The top laner believes that their new support has adapted well to the current roster and expects the Dane to play a crucial part in Barrage’s success in the competition.
“Since we got Fittle it has been a lot better than it was towards the end of the spring season. He brings a strong macro voice as well as a cool head even when we’re behind,”
“The team atmosphere was quite subdued towards the end of the split due to poor results among other things. So, a fresh face and a positive attitude has helped to energise the team atmosphere somewhat. I think after the disappointing results in the spring season the team as a whole is going in with something to prove.”
The Brit knows that good performances in Forge of Champions can lead to great rewards. This could be in the form of getting a better contract at the organisation you are at now or moving to another organisation in the summer. With new rising talents emerging every day, nobody is safe and Artorias will want to make sure that his position remains locked down.
“I think that teams probably have their eyes for potential new players as opposed to the whole rosters. After forge, most teams do not have to play any games until next season and can focus on any roster changes they might wish to make.“
However, with regards to Forge of Champions. While Artorias feels that the pressure is off the lesser sides due to imminent changes. For the likes of exceL and Diabolus, they will have a point to prove.
“I don’t think that results in Forge of Champions will be all that important for most teams. I think most if not all of the teams from MnM and below in the standings will be making roster changes during the offseason. If a team makes the right changes it should be easy for them to go into the summer split feeling optimistic even with a poor Forge showing,”
“As for the top three teams, the pressure is on somewhat more. Fnatic Rising have just come back from a top-four finish at EU masters and while they are doubtlessly practising for forge, they are probably taking at least a short break. I think exceL have the most pressure to perform at this Forge of Champions. If they fall short to Diabolous or another team, it will reflect badly on the academy side.”
For Barrage right now, all that matters is that their side represents the brand well. If this line-up performs to expectations then there may be no need to change the roster. The team will be fully focused on beating ‘looking for an org’ and progressing to tomorrows quarter finals. Still, it’s important that they don’t underestimate their opponents today as Phelan and DarkSpawn nearly suffered shock defeats to the wild-card teams yesterday.
Don’t forget to tune into tonight’s matches live on Twitch at 6pm!
By Tom Daniels
Gromp News 